History of Censuses

On our territory, the indexes of inhabitants or of selected groups of population have already been carried out in the Middle Age. Historically these records were mainly made for military and fiscal purposes. At the beginning they only included information on a part of population. Improvement of the population indexes in our country and in Europe was associated with the accession of absolutism and development of the state apparatus. Year 1869 begins the period of ”modern censuses” characterized by respect to fundamental principles set out by international statistical congresses and based on particular laws. The Census in Austria-Hungary was followed up by a census at the time of the first Czechoslovak Republic as well as by subsequent Censuses that have been carried out up until present. The last Population and Housing Census took place on March 1, 2001.